According to constraint theory, the greatest human bottleneck is attention. Yes. Our attention is our most finite resource. Even more finite and valuable than our time. Now, think about why Meta is so valuable. And Elon wanted X. And so on… Indeed, the quality and depth of our attention determines the quality of our time. Most people’s attention is scattered, tugged, and seemingly never right here and right now. The rich know this well. In the US, the top 1% don’t allow kids to interact with...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Human emotions spread fast. Very fast. Much faster than any virus. If you go to a stadium and the home team is winning, there’s an explosion of joy. The exact opposite happens if they lose at the last minute. It’s contagious. Inevitable. If your little boy takes her first steps, the huge look of surprise and joy on his face will infect you instantly. That’s who we are. It’s our nature. You don’t need a PPP Certificate from the World Bank to understand this. So… If you spend your life watching...
2 days ago • 1 min read
According to the market research company Harris Poll, 52% of people between 16 and 26 wish social media had never been invented. Con dos c0jones. If they are not your clients or employees or colleagues now, they will be very soon. What’s this telling you? Simple. Worry less about technology and much more about experience and understanding. Most people out there are obsessed with how to implement AI, but are incapable of empathizing with their neighbor’s human pain or joy. Don’t stress about...
3 days ago • 1 min read
I’ve never seen anybody truly making anything great just by waiting. Just by not taking action. Just by letting train after train leave the station. Tomorrow. When I finish the next free-course. Or the next certification. Or when I come back from holidays. Or when I have time “in the summer”. Or when I read “that” book. Or else. Pray and wait is a strategy for failure. Or mediocracy. Problems don’t solve magically themselves. Wishes never come true unless you move your a$$. This is true for...
4 days ago • 1 min read
I told you about Horward before. 1982. New York. A young guy joined a company. Not as CEO. Not as strategist. Not as “Head of Vision.” Director of Retail Operations. Exciting, right? Mid-level. Replaceable. Just another guy executing someone else’s plan. The company was called: Starbucks The guy was: Howard Schultz At that time, Starbucks didn’t even sell the “Starbucks experience.” They sold beans. Machines. Coffee equipment. No romance. No Italian fantasy. No global empire. Just beans. But...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Excellent professional. First in coming in. Last in leaving. Sacrificing holidays, family time and even health. Limited recognition. Or not recognition at all. Tried to change career path. “If only you had specific experience”, “It would be great to have it done it before”, “But this is complicated”, “If you had more exposure to clients”, “what’s your commercial experience”. Don’t blame those questions, or the messengers. Fear is logical. In today’s world where you have to cover your @ss at...
6 days ago • 1 min read
You talk to that person and think, This must be someone important. Vice President. Well… time to listen. It was urgent. And my agenda always has room for interesting people. Then… 30 seconds into the conversation, you realize this is going nowhere. How he talks. What he asks. The rush to prove the title… something I wasn’t interested in. Well… Disappointment. Then… You check LinkedIn and notice the company has more Vice Presidents than assistants, associates, managers, and project managers...
7 days ago • 1 min read
These days I’ve been asked many times what I think about the Conejo Malo. Or Bad Bunny. Until the Super Bowl I had no idea who was the guy. I don’t listen to much music those days… So as he is only 31, I guess that I have not heard much of his songs. And still this is irrelevant. People like judging more than complaining. And my answer about the question is simple. Whoever has what you don’t have knows what you don’t know. And whoever has achieved what you haven’t achieved has done what you...
8 days ago • 1 min read
By the answers of yesterday’s email, I see that people love Canada. I do. So here you are more meat. Montreal… or as we say in Montreal… Montréal. Early 2010s. Project: McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) PPP Value: ~ CAD $1.3 billion Model: DBFM Canada again. Sophisticated market. Experienced advisers. Polished risk matrices. I was there practising kung fu and delivering infrastructure. The goal? Deliver one of the largest hospital redevelopments in North America through PPP. And make it...
9 days ago • 1 min read